Christmas

Christmas this year was deliberately pared down from last year, but still provided a feast.
We had homemade bagels, topped with scrambled egg and smoked salmon for breakfast. Followed up many hours later by roast goose, aran victory roast potatoes, braised red cabbage, cranberry relish and steamed carrots. Plenty.


The goose arrived from our local butcher beautifully presented in a big white box:

I stuffed the goose with sausagement & sage in the neck, and bramley apple and prune in the cavity.
Christmas feast accomplished!!

Game ragu

Rabbit, venison, mallard - cooked with celery, carrot, onions, bay, thyme, white wine, vegetable bouillon. We slow braised it in the oven, then cooked papardelle and added to the light stew. It was unbelievably good! Very simple, but the flavours were just perfect. Jamie at Home to thank for this one.
Similar in its way to the Chick Pea and Cavolo Nero recipe from River Cafe: same mirepoix base and white wine flavouring. It just works so well.

Christmas cake

I was won over by the ingredients in this recipe (from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries) and decided to make my first ever Christmas cake :)
I cut up figs, apricots, cherries, prunes and added currants, sultanas, raisins, hazelnuts and ground almonds. Full of fruits and nuts. And brandy.
It cooked forever in the oven, and has been wonderful all Christmas, moist, tasty.

Orange shortbread christmas biscuits

Tried and tested recipe from Gordon Ramsey - where you whip the yolks and sugar, and whip in the butter. It also uses strong bread flour instead of plain, and they are wonderfully fragrant and light. I adapt the Cumin shortbread recipe in 'Desserts'.

Chocolate orange christmas biscuits

My friend made German Christmas biscuits and sent them to us in the post! They survived and were truly delicious. Inspired, I started looking up recipes online.
Not as good as working directly from the source - but worth a go.
I found this recipe for chocolate orange biscuits, made with grated chocolate which gives a lovely flavour and texture.

Panettone

I love panettone - but didn't want to spend over a tenner on one - it seemed pretty straightforward to make, so surely worth a go. Last year I tried a recipe I found on the web, but it wasn't great: bit too dry, not the right balance of fruit and sugar. So when I saw a recipe in the River Cafe's Classic Italian Cookbook - bingo. If Mrs' Rogers and Gray have approved it - I'm in.
They didn't disappoint - it was sensible and delightful all at the same time. Plenty of proving time, plenty of eggs, plenty of fruit, not too much sugar.
I like it best (almost) when its proving - it looks glossy, light and rich.
When baked - my slightly-too-hot-oven nearly got the better of it - but i rescued it in time, and it was really good when cooled.
Being a bread it needs to settle and cool before eating - unlike cake :)
I'll stick with this recipe from now on.

Vacherin, Tomato Chutney, Port

We splashed out on some Vacherin, and it was worth every penny. We picked it up at Waddesdon Manor, where they have a good selection of Rothschild wines and some cheeses to accompany them.
Our friends gave us some green tomato chutney, brilliantly fruity and sharp, and we dug out some port :) Altogether a rare and indulgent supper. Roll on Christmas. 

Bagels

Another Bertinet recipe - and a winner.
I made these bagels almost a year ago (! ) and was more successful this time round (see previous bagel attempt).
Instead of dipping the bagels into seeds when they just came out of the boiling water, i scattered the seeds on top of the bagels - this gave better coverage.
Also my oven seemed to be hotter this time round and the bagels came out lovely and golden.
I struggled to keep the hole in the middle - despite feeding a rolling pin through the dough balls as instructed - so that when cut some looked like rolls :) not very bagel-like. But the texture was good and chewy, with a nice crispness on the outside. Good result.

Brioche

Lovely brioche loaf made from a Bertinet recipe. My oven is running quite hot at the moment, which means it was a little overdone. The hot spot in the bottom right corner is getting more vociferous.
Brioche was good - tho' it really found its forte in a bread and butter pudding I put together with some marmalade. For the custard I improvised with three eggs, a pint of whole milk and some cream. Was delicious!